Be thankful you're not into testosterone-overdosed music like Dream Theater. It's even worse.

I've never had that problem at a Sigur Ros show, though.

I love Ween, but I probably won't go to another show of theirs because of the idiot fans who use the show as an excuse to get fucked up and invade everyone's personal space.

I haven't had many bad experiences at concerts that I can recall. Not to the point where I'm thinking, "This person is ruining my fucking night!"

The crowd at Andrew Bird on Wednesday was amazing. Everyone sat down the entire show, couldn't hear a peep through the songs, and cheered loudly inbetween.

At Iron & Wine a few months ago, there was some talking inbetween songs, but when he started playing again half the people started going SHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! until the point where it almost became a running joke.

Ohh, and there was this drunk hipster couple at the Decemberists who danced obnoxiously in front of my girlfriend and I the entire time. They had some room to move, so they weren't bumping into us. That was more hilarious than annoying, though.

talking about it is the first step.

maybe this group will come out with a DVD
no more ugly human interacting

they on DVD!!!

At this show I was at Saturday night the crowd was spectacular, and the music was great, but considering I ended up dancing on stage by the end, I may have been "that guy".

I don't know those people.

The quietest shows I ever went to were, surprisingly, 2 Archer Prewitt/Sam Prekop shows at 2 different venues in Champaign, IL. Unfortunately, they were only quiet because fewer than 25 people showed up at the shows...combined.

the crowd at the MMJ show that FT and I went to recently was one of the worst I've had to deal with...there were quite a few people with their backs to the stage, not even kinda paying attention to the show

but even with a good crowd, there always seems to be the person who endlessly yells out songs titles...usually obscure shit to like, ya know, impress you and stuff

I was just about to mention this. Besides for the drunk Canadian who wouldn't shut up about how his girlfriend's dad owns the third largest company in the nation (who luckily left about 10 minutes into the show), everyone was silent.

even worse is the slew of soccer jerseys at any show where a european band is playing on american soil. i want to go to britain and wear a baseball jersey at an american band's show.

at wolfmother last week, i saw a guy wearing a shirt with the australian flag (who knows, though, could've been new zealand's since i can't tell them apart) on it. and then when the band started, three guys near us held up a huge australian flag. i felt bad for the poor people standing behind them.

i can hardly take it anymore. i think portland is worse than other cities - i have been to a number of shows where people just will not shut the fuck up. i have seen numerous artists yell at people to shut up - at Berbati's, at Roseland, etc. I heard Jeff Tweedy was screaming for pepole to shut up at one of his solo shows a week or so ago. the problem at a lot of the venues around here is that the bar is too close to the stage or too open so that the sounds from in there disrupts the entire place. they should put the bar somewhere off in a corner somewhere and put up sound proof walls - especially at acoustic shows. i really don't enjoy most shows anymore because of loud talkers.

i saw tim booth last year when he did a short US radio tour. the gig i saw was at the only real venue of the tour. he said he was really disappointed to see it was a bar because it was just him, a guy with an acoustic guitar, and a girl playing piano. near the end, he commended the audience on our "quality of listening" because it really was pretty quiet and you could hear every word. that was probably the most unexpectedly nice comment i've ever heard from a stage.

I saw Jeff Tweedy play solo at the Filmore a week ago or so.

People have always been assholes in crowds (alcohol, you know) .... but the assholes now may have a little less sense of self... I think they don't know they are assholes as much as assholes 30 years ago, just a hunch.

But Tweedy ranted on about the noise, and how in the old days people were lynched for making stupid noise and not paying attention. His wit always inspires the witless to shout back. I think it actually depressed him a bit.

But by the end, the last encore, he stepped in front of the mike, and sang unamplified out into the common air. No one spoke, no one needed to be the center of attention, all seemed to connect in the man singing all alone in front.

Sometimes, as J. Santana said, all you need is a moment...

I love how Sonic Youth has become so safe that they attract such uniformly closed-minded, intolerant crowds. Good for them for bringing along bands like Wolf Eyes, Hair Police, and Sunburned. At least Wolf Eyes feeds off of antagonizing the audience, and Hair Police probably does, too. Sunburned probably just don't give a fuck. So there.

To put it perspective, I once saw Sonic Youth open for Pearl Jam at a stadium show. They were almost completely ignored by the audience who were milling around, talking very loudly, and acting like they'd never heard "Teenage Riot" before. I guess a lot of them hadn't.

Try going to shows in LA. I deal with this shit all the time.... last week at the Pop Levi show, the very same thing happened. Small venue, no stage, acoustic set and about 30 people in the audience. Most people had their backs turned to Pop Levi or were standing in front of people (who were actually paying attention to him) talking LOUDLY.

Tonight gonna go see the Hold Steady / Les Savy Fav, so I expect some rowdiness but that's a different story.

It was similarly important to me last year, too (I'm not bothering to rank things anymore - if I loved it, I listened to it a lot and at that level, I love a number of things equally. This was a wonderful surprise last year, put it at that.)

I've almost completely given up on concerts. I've made it no secret that I'm about as introverted as you can get, so just being in crowds can drive me nuts. Concerts have just gotten worse and worse when it comes to crowd behavior, so that just puts it over the top - save my money and buy a DVD or live CD when/if it comes out. Note to all bands: document your tours - I WILL be buying them!

However, I have my hope restored when I saw Einsturzende Neubauten two years ago. That was, by far, the most awesome crowd ever. They were all huge fans and all were nearly silent, allowing the band's delicately and quietly acoustic instruments to actually be heard without mics (the pipes with air guns blowing into them were particularly amazing because the official bootleg bought after the show makes it obvious how little of that sound made it to mics.) We were so quiet that Blixa made a comment about how incredible of a crowd we were - very enthusiastic at the right moments, but absolutely pin-drop silent the rest of the time. It was incredible and beautiful.

Haha. Right on.One of my favorite shows ever was when the Flaming Lips, Stone Temple Pilots and the Butthole Surfers played at Lakewood Ampitheatre (Summer '93 maybe?). After STP, the looks on the faces of their fans when the Surfers started where priceless (especially becase we were FREAKING out) Those poor schmucks never had a chance.

That's actually a better example than mine since that Pearl Jam show happened in 2000 ( ), and every one of those fuckers at that show should've at least known who Sonic Youth are and at least paid attention to them. It was just a flat out idiotic crowd, maybe the worst of any show I've ever been to.

I was in that PJ crowd. Sorry if I offended you.

I like Sonic Youth though so it probably wasnt me.

I mainly remember that I couldn't hear the band over the audience singing along. Some people might say that's a good thing, but I didn't pay $30 to hear some drunk dudes belting out "Rearviewmirror".

Nope, I paid $30 to hear Mike McCready do a guitar solo with his wah pedal on every fucking song. And in that sense, I suppose I came away satisfied.

Pearl Jam is a seriously great live band. Maybe one of the best working today. But they do have some shady fans.

Vedder's analogy that they are akin to the Grateful Dead (his meaning was that they dont have to give a fuck about album sales b/c they sell out every show) is kinda true about the fanbase as well.....

I thought they played a good show, McCready's solos aside.

The best parts were actually when they played newer, less well-known stuff that the crowd didn't know.